Rings, bracelets, necklaces, watches, gems, earrings, and the like present a collection of various types of jewelry which many people today own and wear due to their aesthetically pleasing appearance. Nevertheless through daily wear, this jewelry can become dirty and tarnished thus diminishing their sightly appearance. Therefore, these items must be periodically cleaned in order to maintain their original beauty. Liquid jewelry cleaning formulations which have been developed for this purpose have enjoyed limited success, due mainly to the fact that several common forms of dirt and grime are unaffected thereby. Steam cleaning devices on the other hand have been known for a long time as a valid means of thoroughly cleaning most forms and dirt and grime from jewelry pieces; however, the use of these steam cleaning devices for jewelry items have largely been relegated to jewelry stores and other similar commercial establishments due to their rather large size and complicated design.
A number of steam cleaning devices have been developed which disclose a means of cleaning jewelry via a relatively high velocity stream of water vapor or steam and examples of such devices includes U.S. Pat. No. 2,753,212 to Aultman, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,414,037 to Friedheim. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,490 to Gross discloses a jewelry cleaning means utilizing a high velocity stream of air mixed with a relatively low temperature cleaning solution. Although all of these devices provide an effective method of cleaning jewelry, they suffer in that they are of complex design thus rendering them cost-prohibitive for personal use. Moreover, these complex designs which have been relegated to commercial use have further compounded the problem of complexity in that more stringent safety mechanisms are necessary due to their operation in a commercial environment, thereby further raising their costs. This is due in part to the fact that their use in a commercial environment has necessitated relatively large sized mechanisms which are able to handle high levels of usage.
Auxiliary mechanisms for steam cleaning devices that have been developed to provide a containment structure for jewelry items being cleaned include U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,738 to Hubbard and U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,097 to Papandrea. Each of these devices discloses a means of insuring that small gems which are inadvertently dislodged from the jewelry piece remain within a containment structure during the cleaning process. Similarly to the large steam cleaning devices to which they are attached, these devices are large bulky items and thus generally unsuitable for personal use.
Thus, there has been a long-felt need for a jewelry cleaning device which is sufficiently small and simple in design to enable its use in a residential environment. Moreover, the device's simple, non-complex construction should thus be inexpensive to produce as well as easy to maintain thereby enabling the personal use thereof.